2014/10/07 by Yi-feng Yang, Yi‐feng Yang, David Pines · 24 citations
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Antiferromagnetism #Condensed matter physics #Electron #Electron pair #Iron-based superconductors research #Pairing #Phase transition #Physics #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum #Quantum critical point #Quantum mechanics #Quantum phase transition #Quasiparticle #Rare-earth and actinide compounds #Spin (aerodynamics) #Strongly correlated material #Superconductivity #Thermodynamics #cond-mat.str-el #cond-mat.supr-con
paper · pdf · doi:10.1073/pnas.1422100112
published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111(51), 18178-18182 (National Academy of Sciences) · 21 pages, 2 figures, 1 table
arxiv created 2014/10/07 · openalex publication_date 2014/12/08 · arxiv updated 2015/02/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Although the pairing glue for the attractive quasiparticle interaction responsible for unconventional superconductivity in heavy-electron materials has been identified as the spin fluctuations that arise from their proximity to a magnetic quantum critical point, there has been no model to describe their superconducting transition at temperature Tc that is comparable to that found by Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer (BCS) for conventional superconductors, where phonons provide the pairing glue. Here we propose such a model: a phenomenological BCS-like expression for Tc in heavy-electron materials that is based on a simple model for the effective range and strength of the spin-fluctuation-induced quasiparticle interaction and reflects the unusual properties of the heavy-electron normal state from which superconductivity emerges. We show that it provides a quantitative understanding of the pressure-induced variation of Tc in the "hydrogen atoms" of unconventional superconductivity, CeCoIn5 and CeRhIn5, predicts scaling behavior and a dome-like structure for Tc in all heavy-electron quantum critical superconductors, provides unexpected connections between members of this family, and quantifies their variations in Tc with a single parameter.